Tag: Melanie Yu

Posted on

Century Sam Lake

May 2, 2026

~ submitted by Melanie Yu

Three of us were keen on checking out the trail on a clear sunny warm weekend. The warm and disappointing winter ski season we had got me questioning how soon Comox Glaciers would be feasible…I still have to check it off my bucket list. It felt like the perfect time to check out how much has melted up there, and a good opportunity to check out the road conditions.  This was my third time doing this hike, and I was able to drive to the trail head in November and thought it was still attainable. It was shocking to find how much worse all the cross ditches/water bars were since I had last been up.

No vehicles today made it to the trail head. A stark difference from last season. A significant amount of rainfall and washouts seemed to have happened since, as even at the trailhead, a lot of foliage had disappeared and it was almost completely exposed. I deeply remember hiking up this road years ago when I did it the first time and remember finding relief at the shaded trail head. This is no longer the case! 

Even with maximum clearance of 15 inches with one truck, the only thing that would have made making the trailhead with more confidence was a stronger approach angle and a short wheel base (though it wasn’t necessary to have short wheel base for this one). The cross ditches to the trail head felt worse than the ditches to Mount Joan.

Continue reading “Century Sam Lake”
Posted on

Horne Lake Hustle – Mount Mark

February 4, 2026

~ submitted by Melanie Yu

We all met and congregated at approximately 8:05am. Some members where familiar with each other but we all had not hiked with each other as a whole. One member expressed appreciating this hike because they were not interested in super long drives towards Port Alberni or beyond, and it was more of a summer thing for them to engage in.

We were blessed with being the only hiking group on the mountain. All of us except one had hiked the mountain on more than one occasion, and none of us had ever experienced hiking this mountain without passing by another group. We were so fortunate to have the mountain to ourselves! 

The entire hike was full of laughs and conversations. I guess being with a group made up of retired folks conjures up fonds memories when the leader is more than half their senior! Haha.

We experienced all the false summits and it provided the group natural break points to catch their breath. The summit registry had completely disappeared, it was the perfect opportunity for the trip leader to replace the registry and we were the first group to sign our names.

We were blessed with clear skies and beautiful bowls of cloud inversions. Before we set sails for our descent the horizon above the cloud inversion continued to evolve into a beautiful opalescent pink blue hue and we couldn’t stop taking photos of the evolving horizons at all the false summits.

The hike was posted as a P3 but it was a very comfortable p2 and we ended the hike around 14:30. Everyone resolved at the end that we enjoyed the company of each other and that we would all hike again in the near future.

A successful club hike in the books!